The present invention relates in general to the field of building components and construction, and in particular to a new and useful header arrangement for use in metal and non-metal buildings.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/801,068 filed Mar. 15, 2004 is incorporated here by reference, and discloses the inventor's previous invention of a Metal Building Construction. This prior patent application, among other times, discloses metal building panels that advantageously interlock at Z-shaped structures provided at the opposite vertical edges of each panel.
Virtually all buildings include openings through their walls in the form of windows, doors and other needed openings of various heights and widths. Since these openings necessarily weaken the static or vertical load bearing capacity of the wall, at least in the area of the opening, measures must be taken to increase the strength of the wall above each opening. The aforementioned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/801,068, solves this problem by connecting shorter metal panels that are of similar construction to the longer wall panels, in a side-by-side arrangement to span each opening. For windows, a similar combination of shorter panels is also provided below each window.
In more conventional wooden stud wall and other building constructions, this problem is solved using headers in the form of strong, wide and heavy wooden beams that span the top of each opening and provide the needed load support.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,602 for a Structural Panel for Pre-fabricated Buildings, discloses a structural member having an elongated panels with generally Z-shaped portions that nest with each other. Flanges of the nested panels cooperate to form a receptacle for a stud or joist to form a wall, floor or ceiling combination, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,136 for a Prefabricated Structure Panel discloses a structural member having elongated panels with Z-shaped, nested portions and reinforcing members at the top and bottom of plural nested panels, along with top and bottom plates.
A need remains for a header arrangement that is light in weight and strong in construction, and particularly although not exclusively, suited for metal building construction.